Starships (What We've Got)
by FrequencyOnion
Summary: Sometimes all you need to do is drop everything and build a model.


Author's Note: Recommended to be read after _What We've Got_, but it can work as a stand-alone.

* * *

With power finally being restored all over the city, the hospital's corridors were no longer dark and dismal. The halls were now bright and lively, staff scurrying to and fro with genuine smiles on their faces as they tended to their patients. There was plenty of reason to be happy now that they were all literally coming out of the darkness. Despite the persistently cold and gloomy London fog, seeing another light come back to life was just as uplifting as a desperately needed ray of sunshine.

Pausing in the hospital's entryway, Kaidan dusted off the snowflakes clinging to his heavy wool coat. His free hand ran through his hair to rid of any stragglers lucky enough to have avoided melting up to this point. He hurried down the labyrinthine hallways he now knew by heart, occasionally waving to a staff member as he passed. Having spent so much time in the hospital, he'd gotten to know a lot of the staff personally; that one loved Blasto movies, that one dreamed of hopefully visiting the Citadel one day, that one was an Alliance marine in her younger days, that one had lost his entire family in the war...

He rounded the corner and came to a stop in front of Shepard's room just as the head nurse was leaving. Another nurse was still inside and talking to John. The cantankerous head nurse waited for the door to slide shut before fixing him with a most unamused glare. "Major," she sniffed, "I'm glad you're here." That couldn't be good. "You need to have a word with the Commander about his... behavior."

"What's he done now?" Kaidan deadpanned, rolling his eyes.

"That man is a menace!" she hissed, pointing at the closed door behind her. Not a minute later the door opened and the other nurse-pretty, young little blonde thing-squealed as she ran out of the room. Judging by the smile on her face, she sure didn't seem to find her charge all that menacing.

The head nurse followed the fleeing nurse with eyes narrowed in disapproval. "He's impossible to work with! He flirts with all of the nurses, uses his biotics on them, bullies the male nurses that aren't amused by his antics, and I know that Lieutenant Vega has been sneaking him alcohol." She ticked off her fingers as she went down the list.

None of this surprised Kaidan in the least-as he'd come to learn, it was classic bored John behavior. "I'll be sure to talk to him," he answered obediently. The nurse gave a sharp nod and turned on her heel. He waited for her to walk away before cracking a smile and walking into the room.

John perked up and turned his head the moment the door opened. If what the head nurse said was true-and with John it most assuredly was-their heroic Commander was likely expecting the thrill of getting to harass another nurse. "Oh, hey baby!" he greeted in surprise.

Maybe it was just the high coming from the new relationship, but Kaidan didn't think he could ever get tired of hearing John call him that. It seemed like such an impersonal endearment, but for two guys who had stupidly circled and avoided the issue for years, it felt like a huge milestone. And how easily it seemed to slip from John's lips.

But that was something else he'd learned about John along the way. While it might take John awhile to commit to some things, he didn't half-ass anything once he did-he gave his all and then some. Time and resources may be in short supply, but he was always generous with whatever he had. And he was unabashedly honest, much to the bewilderment of many of those around him; you always knew where you stood with Shepard. Regardless of what he might think of himself some days, he was a good person at heart-the type of person that could inspire those around him to want to be better themselves.

Kaidan leaned in for a quick peck on the lips before setting down the bag he was carrying. He shrugged out of his damp coat, tossing the piece of clothing over the back of a chair. "So what's this I hear about you using your powers for evil?" he teased, sitting on the edge of the bed and claiming another kiss.

A familiar mischievous glint flashed in John's blue eyes. "Have to entertain myself somehow, unless you can offer something better," he leered, yanking Kaidan down for another kiss. John's hand slithered up the inside of his thigh.

Kaidan quickly swatted John's hand away. "Not here," he hissed.

"C'mon, we just pull that curtain over and make it quick-they'll never know."

"No."

John huffed in frustration before diverting his attention to the bag sitting on the chair. "So what'd you bring me?" And like that, his previous needs were forgotten. When John wasn't obsessing over his duties-be they saving the galaxy or antagonizing medical staff-his attention span was not unlike that of a dog with a ball being waved in front of its nose.

Kaidan slid off the bed and retrieved the bag, passing it to John. As enthusiastic as a child at Christmas, John dug into the plastic bag, pulling out a model kit of the Normandy SR-1. He turned the box over in his hands a few times, forehead wrinkling in confusion as he did so. "But I've already got this one."

"Not anymore you don't," Kaidan frowned, folding his arms as he watched. "It was the only one I couldn't fix."

The flimsy glass of John's display cases had shattered from the impact of the Normandy's crash onto that backwater planet. The delicate models had made their first-and last-flights from the safety of their display pegs, ending up as broken pieces scattered among the shards of glass. At the time, Kaidan had been too busy to do more than collect the pieces in a box, which had been set aside on an empty corner of desk to be dealt with later. He'd never understood John's fascination with the hobby, nor did he see much of a point to it.

When all the anxiety over John's condition had finally gotten to be too much for his sanity, he had pulled the box out and sorted the pieces into orderly little piles based on which model he guessed they belonged to. But the piles just sitting there nagged at his own desires for cleanliness and order, so he decided to try putting the models back together. He soon found that he enjoyed the challenge and was actually looking forward to the task of rebuilding all of them.

Meticulously puzzling together those fragile pieces left little room for any other thoughts. He imagined the moment John opened the box to a new model was probably like sailing away to a private, mental island-no worrying about diplomacy, how many people were dying, how hopeless it had all seemed. No matter what John had been burdened with, Kaidan had always noticed the sag of relief in his shoulders and how much easier the smiles came when another model was added to the case. For sanity's sake, maybe the answer was dropping everything once in awhile and building a model.

"You fixed them all for me?" John asked in disbelief.

Kaidan sat back down on the bed. "As best as I could," he said modestly, rubbing at the back of his neck.

A slow smile curled across John's features as he looked down and ran a hand over the front of the box. "Would you help me build this one?" He looked up, his blue eyes wide and sparkling with anticipation. John didn't seem to realize what a dangerous weapon those pretty blue eyes of his were, and Kaidan wasn't about to tell him that a single glance made him weak in the knees. One look like that and that man could have absolutely anything he wanted.

"I'd love to."Kaidan said.

John's eyes lit up. "Get over here, baby," he said, patting the mattress next to him.

Kaidan slid over and turned himself so they were sitting side by side. He pulled the bedside tray table in front of them and watched John dump out the remaining contents of the bag onto the table; an assortment of small pliers, tweezers, cutters, and a tiny bottle of glue. When John seemed satisfied that all of his tools were there, he flipped the box over and slit the plastic wrap open with his nail.

Despite all of those quiet moments he'd spent watching John build models, watching was all he had ever done. Which was probably just as well considering he had no experience in the ship-building department and would likely make a mess of things. He had no problem making modifications to his weapons-something he preferred doing himself anyway-but that was as detailed as he got, and those pieces tended to be a lot more forgiving.

When John handed him a white plastic skeleton of pieces and a pair of clippers, he blinked in surprise. This wasn't going to end well. "You sure I'm... qualified... for this?" he asked, inspecting the pieces attached to the frame. They looked like sections of the hull and were thankfully good-sized.

John hummed positively. "You fixed all the broken ones, didn't you?"

"Kind of, but those pieces were larger and really just needed to be fitted back together," Kaidan said, staring skeptically at the plastic frame in his hand. "You'll probably need to do a better job later," he added.

"You didn't stick a shuttle wing onto a liveship, did you?"

Kaidan laughed. "No."

"Then I'm sure they're fine," John nodded. He rested his head on Kaidan's shoulder. "You'll learn as we build this one together."

There was a happy flutter in Kaidan's chest. _Together._ They'd never had much time to do anything together, at least nothing in a normal sense. Between needing to keep a low profile in public and schedules that just never seemed to coincide with one another, they'd rarely found much time for themselves. He could only hope this was just the beginning of many more quiet moments of normalcy together.

John rotated the plastic frame in his hand so the long hull pieces pointed upright. "Clip it there," he said, pointing to a tiny nub that secured the pieces to the thick outer frame. Kaidan clipped the spot he was shown and turned the frame around to free the other size of the piece. The hull fragment fell into his palm and he set it aside on the table as John pointed out the next nub.

This continued until they were working at a steady rhythm-point, clip, point, clip-and soon there was a growing pile of multi-colored parts on the table. John began fitting the pieces together, explaining what he was doing as he went. Seeing the process up close took all the mystery out of it, and Kaidan realized it wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd thought. And it was definitely relaxing, although part of that could also be explained by the warmth of his lover pressed up against his side.

As the sections grew larger and more recognizable, John began explaining how each segment worked on the real thing. He chattered happily away about eezo cores and propulsion as his hands continued working. It pretty much all went over Kaidan's head, but he couldn't say he was paying that much attention to begin with. Getting to watch John relaxed and completely in his element was too wonderfully distracting.

As it was, the things John knew never ceased to amaze him. Their commander was far more intelligent than many people gave him credit for, being written off as nothing more than some hot-headed grunt with a shady past. Which was true, but there were so many other layers to him underneath that rumpled wrapping. Exactly how many layers there were, even he didn't know. What he did know was that he was incredibly lucky to be the only person to see some of John's softer, more vulnerable sides.

John held together the last two sections, waiting for the glue to bond to the plastic. He used his arm to push aside the tools scattered across the small table, and carefully set the finished model down in the empty space. "Can you believe everything that's happened since then?" he breathed, slipping his arms around Kaidan's waist.

Kaidan wrapped an arm around John's shoulder and pulled him closer. "I think I'd rather forget some of it," he said, pressing his cheek against the soft waves of John's grown-out hair. "But I guess we probably wouldn't be here otherwise," he added.

Silence fell between them for a few moments before John finally spoke up. "So where do we go from here?"

"Don't know, but at least we'll be together this time."

"I like the sound of that." There was a smile in John's voice.

Kaidan hooked a finger under John's chin and tilted his head up. Mirthful blue eyes stared back at him. Wherever life took them, he didn't care because it was sure to be an amazing ride.


End file.
